Jerusalem -- Comments last week from an unnamed Israeli defence official that Iran was reducing its presence in Syria sparked fierce debate about Tehran's next moves and how the Jewish state should respond.

Istanbul -- Turkish people aged 65 and over on Sunday described their joy after the government allowed them to go outside for the first time in nearly two months in an easing of the coronavirus restrictions.

BAGHDAD — Iraq is planning painful cuts in social benefits relied on by millions of government workers. Saudi Arabia will likely have to delay mega-projects. Egypt and Lebanon face a blow as their workers in the Gulf send back less of the much-needed dollars that help keep their fragile economies afloat.

JERUSALEM — With the global coronavirus pandemic ravaging the elderly, Israel’s aging population of Holocaust survivors finds itself on the country’s annual Holocaust Remembrance Day this year much like they were during World War II — alone and in fear of the unknown.

WASHINGTON — A group of 11 Iranian naval vessels made “dangerous and harassing” maneuvers near U.S. ships in the Persian Gulf near Kuwait on Wednesday, in one case passing within 10 yards (meters) of a Coast Guard cutter, American officials said.

Dubai -- Debt levels, unemployment and budget deficits will spike as the Middle East endures a coronavirus-led recession, piling pain on economies already hit by conflicts and an oil price slump, the IMF said Wednesday.

ISTANBUL — Turkey introduced a lockdown over the weekend that took many by surprise, since the country had previously adopted a more relaxed approach to fighting the coronavirus than its neighbors in Europe and the Mideast.

JERUSALEM — The Israeli government approved a tight quarantine of several areas of Jerusalem on Sunday, including the historic Old City, in a bid to slow the spread of the coronavirus in the city’s most susceptible neighborhoods.

Tehran -- Iran on Sunday announced 117 new deaths from the novel coronavirus, bringing the overall official toll to 4,474, even as it eased some restrictions that had been imposed to slow the spread of the illness.

Istanbul -- Turkey stepped up controls Saturday on crowded public spaces including markets and ferries in Istanbul, a day after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan imposed the use of face masks to curb the coronavirus outbreak.

JERUSALEM — Israel is working with foreign governments and Orthodox Christian leaders in the Holy Land to make sure that one of their most ancient and mysterious rituals — the Holy Fire ceremony — is not extinguished by the coronavirus outbreak, officials said Friday.

TEHRAN, Iran — Standing over the still body of an intubated 5-year-old boy wearing nothing but a plastic diaper, an Iranian health care worker in a hazmat suit and mask begged the public for just one thing: Stop drinking industrial alcohol over fears about the new coronavirus.

BEIRUT — Lebanon went into lockdown and Iraqis prepared for a curfew Monday as part of regional efforts to contain the new coronavirus even as businesses remained open in Iran, which is battling the worst outbreak in the Middle East and where another senior official has died from the virus.

Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum ordered the abduction of two of his daughters and subjected his former wife to a "campaign of fear and intimidation", forcing her to flee to London with their two children, according to a British court ruling made public on Thursday.

Riyadh -- Saudi Arabia is treading a tightrope as it bars Muslim pilgrims from Islam's holiest sites to contain the coronavirus, rolling out restrictions that while essential could prove both expensive and politically perilous.

Riyadh -- Saudi Arabia on Thursday suspended visas for visits to Islam's holiest sites for the "umrah" pilgrimage, an unprecedented move triggered by coronavirus fears that raises questions over the hajj, which starts in July.

Iran’s health ministry raised Sunday the death toll from the new virus to 8 people in the Middle Eastern country, amid concerns that clusters there, as well as in Italy and South Korea, could signal a serious new stage in its global spread.

As part of efforts to prevent the spread of the deadly coronavirus, Interior Minister Aryeh Deri on Monday said Israel would ban all non-Israelis who were in four East Asian countries and territories in the previous 14 days.

TEL AVIV - Israel's economic growth last year exceeded all predictions, boding well for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who hopes his stewardship of the Jewish state's strong finances will give him the upper hand against main political challenger Blue and White's Benny Gantz, Bloomberg News reported.

Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas hailed a car-ramming in Jerusalem that wounded 12 Israeli troops on Thursday as a "practical response" to US President Donald Trump's controversial Middle East peace plan.

OSWIECIM, Poland — Survivors of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp gathered Monday for commemorations marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the camp, using the testimony of survivors to warn about the signs of rising anti-Semitism and hatred in the world today.

RAKEK, Slovenia — For Marija Frlan it’s as symbolic as it can get: A survivor of a Nazi concentration camp during World War II, the Slovenian woman turns 100 years old on Monday, the international Holocaust Remembrance Day.

BUDAPEST, Hungary — Hungary’s Jewish community on Sunday commemorated the 75th anniversary of the liberation by Soviet troops of the Budapest ghetto, where over 70,000 Jews were confined near the end of World War II.

TEL AVIV, Israel — As a baseball-crazed kid growing up in Miami, Danny Valencia dreamed of playing in the Major Leagues. The thought of heading to the Olympics, for a foreign country no less, never crossed his mind.

An international team of researchers says it has discovered a 7,000-year-old-seawall along Israel’s Mediterranean coast, providing evidence that coastal communities protected themselves against rising waters even in ancient times.

Lebanon’s president on Monday postponed talks on naming a new prime minister after security forces repeatedly used tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons against hundreds of protesters over the weekend.

One of Germany’s richest families, which owns Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Pret A Manger and other international brands, is giving millions to support Holocaust survivors as it seeks to atone for its use of forced laborers during the Nazi era and its enthusiastic support of Adolf Hitler, The Associated Press has learned.

LISBON, Portugal — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday called for increased action against Iran, indicating that the recent unrest in the Islamic Republic offers an opportunity to topple the regime.

A Lebanese-born Swiss real estate mogul said Monday that he purchased Adolf Hitler’s top hat and other Nazi memorabilia from a German auction in order to keep them out of the hands of neo-Nazis, and has agreed to donate them to a Jewish group.

As Israel approaches what would be its third election in less than a year, many Israelis and international observers are questioning the sustainability of the country’s complicated parliamentary system.

Forming a minority coalition with the Joint List would be a slap in the face to IDF soldiers, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a message to Blue and White leader Benny Gantz in his address to a conference held by the Makor Rishon weekly on Monday.

Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that slain Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin "was not a traitor" for approving the 1993 Oslo Accords and admitted he should have spoken out more against those who labeled him as one.

Speaking at a meeting in Munich of officials from around the world gathered to tackle the issue of antisemitism, World Jewish Congress President Ron Lauder demanded action against antisemitism, especially new laws that would regulate its spread over the internet.

The US State Department’s new report on terrorism lists the Islamic Republic of Iran as the top international state-sponsor of terrorism and cites Tehran’s work with facilitating the activities of Sunni terrorist organization al-Qaeda.

BAGHDAD — Dozens of Iraqi protesters attacked the Iranian consulate in the Shiite holy city of Karbala on Sunday, scaling the concrete barriers ringing the building, bringing down an Iranian flag and replacing it with the Iraqi flag, eyewitnesses said.

Israeli officials on Sunday praised US President Donald Trump on the American special forces raid in Syria that killed Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling it an “important milestone” in the fight against terrorism.

A 93-year-old former guard at the Nazis’ Stutthof concentration camp testified at his trial Friday that he once saw people being led into the gas chamber, followed by screaming and banging sounds behind the locked door.

In a segment on Israeli television, Breitbart Jerusalem bureau chief expressed concern Iran could attempt to fill the power vacuum in northeast Syria following the U.S. withdrawal from that territory and a deal between Russia and Turkey to jointly patrol the area.

Lebanon began a sixth day of anti-government protests on Tuesday after supporters of the Hezbollah terrorist movement and the pro-Hezbollah Amal party confronted Lebanese protestors in Beirut on Monday evening.